You were gone?
by Enzonia
Summary: Spoilers for 5:02. Merlin leaves after talking to the Diarmair. and finds that the knights might have missed his absence. Merlin is less then pleased with this revelation. Friend-Abandoning prats get what's coming for them! Now a two-shot! Yay!
1. You were gone?

**Short one-shot I've had in my head since Arthur's Bane part 2. Please review!**

* * *

Merlin was not having the greatest day.

So far today, he'd almost fallen down a crevasse, got rotten vegetables dumped on his head, been attacked by Aithusa, and been thrown against a wall by a high priestess of the old religion.

And this was just taking the biscuit.

He'd awoken to find himself if the same dark cave he'd lost consciousness in before, with the glowy creature from before healing him. They'd had a nice chat about destiny and such, before Merlin had informed the Diamair that he would have to go – he couldn't be completely sure that Arthur hadn't already got involved in some life-threatening situation in the few minutes he'd been away.

And now, Arthur, and the knights, were nowhere to be found.

Muttering darkly about disappearing prats, Merlin turned a corner, wishing that he'd asked the 'Key to all Knowledge' where the hell everyone had got to, or maybe he could have just asked whether he had a map Merlin could borrow. He stepped over another still body of a Saxon guard as he continued forward. Maybe that was the way to find the knights, follow the dead bodies. His new tactic worked surprisingly well, and within a few minutes he could hear the sound of voices coming around another bend in the cave's path.

Pushing himself around the corner, his face broke into a grin as he saw a large group man ahead, including a familiar dark-haired man.

"Gwaine!" Merlin called out, and Gwaine turned around.

"Merlin!" he called back, closing his bag and looking up at him. "How are you doing?"

Merlin blinked once. "You're not going to ask me where I was?"

"You were gone?"

Merlin stared at Gwaine in more-than-mild disbelief. He'd have expected that _Arthur_ might not have noticed his disappearance (he wasn't exactly the most observant man in the world), but Gwaine was a different matter. Gwaine who'd been trying to get Merlin drunk for at least 3 years, Sir 'you're-the-only-friend-I've-_got_' Gwaine, who'd come along with Merlin on a dangerous trek to the perilous lands for crying out loud!

Who apparently hadn't noticed the Merlinlessness of his surroundings!

Gwaine didn't seem to notice that anything was wrong, and threw his pack onto his shoulders. Merlin continued to gape at him.

"You were _gone?_" He repeated incredulously.

"Nope" Gwaine said "_You _were gone, apparently."

"_I _was gone?" Merlin said, voice rising in pitch somewhat.

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head on something Merlin?"

Merlin opened his mouth to answer, opened and closed it rapidly like a goldfish, before closing it again.

"Merlin!"

Arthur had joined into the discussion, which probably wouldn't help matters in the slightest. He had his own pack slung around his shoulders, and was stowing his sword back on his belt. Merlin was just about to say something (again) when Arthur turned away from Merlin.

"We'll be going in a few minutes, so I'm just checking you've got everything ready to go."

"Isn't _anyone _going to ask me where I was?" Merlin interjected indignantly as Arthur turned to leave.

"You were gone?" Arthur asked in surprise.

"I was _gone?!_" Merlin repeated; voice even higher than before. If it got any higher, only _bats _would be able to understand him, and the cave did certainly have a lot of those.

"Mate, we've gone through this before" Gwaine said 'helpfully'.

"Shut up Gwaine!" Merlin said, his head snapping towards Gwaine quickly. "I just woke up, in a deserted _cave! _And none of _you _seemed to have noticed! I was _thrown _against a wall by a powerful sorceress, and then _left for dead! _Nobody noticed I was gone! Do you know how that feels?!"

"You were gone?"

There was a sound suspiciously similar to a large pile of explosives going off as Merlin rounded on Percival, who had just come over. For some reason, he still was not wearing a shirt, despite the rest of the knights discovering a large pile of the things a few minutes ago. Then again, this was the same Percival who wore a sleeveless shirt when he went to patrol in icy wastelands.

Merlin opened his mouth, but was interrupted again, this time by Percival.

"Arthur, the knights are ready to leave."

A dull 'thunk' resonated through Merlin's head as he noticed the packed bags slung across each of the knights shoulders, as well as the general air of 'we're going home!' that was filling the cave.

Merlin turned to Arthur again, "You were going to leave me? _Here?_"

Arthur looked decidedly uncomfortable. "We didn't know you were missing, to be completely honest…" He trailed off as he saw the look on Merlin's face. It was an interesting mix of incredulity, anger and anxiety.

"You didn't notice I was _missing_"

"Merlin, stop repeating everything Arthur says."

"Shut up Gwaine!"

"So" Merlin said, the look on his face making the three knights quail under his look "You left me _alone _in this cave, to _die! _And _nobody _noticed or cared!"

An awkward silence followed his words.

"That's the general gist of it, yeah…" Arthur said hesitantly.

"_That's the general gist of it…"_ Merlin repeated again, something he had been doing a lot of so far today. "Do you know how dangerous these caves are?"

"We had got rid of _most _of the dangerous things…" Gwaine said fairly, "It wasn't _that _dangerous."

"Dangerous?!" Merlin said, his voice now on the wrong side of hysterical. "_Dangerous?!_ No, there was nothing _dangerous _in _these_ caves, oh _no! _Just the Saxons, Morgana, the Saxons, Aithu- the Dragon, Hypothermia, Roof collapse, the _Saxons, _starvation, and did I mention the _SAXONS!?"_

"We got rid of most of the Saxons…" Percival muttered.

"Sir Percival and his topless army!" Merlin said "Somehow, the thought doesn't reassure me!"

"Hey! That topless army was cool!"

"Gwaine, shut up."

"Percival _was _sort of busy at the moment though…" Merlin muttered, more to himself then to the knights. "Unlike _you!_" he turned to face Arthur again.

"I had to check on the other knights!" He protested.

"The strong, _hand-picked _knights of Camelot need a _babysitter _now, do they?" Merlin asked waspishly.

He glanced over at a nearby pack of knights, watching Sir Kaius poke himself repeatedly with the end of the sword in an attempt to see how sharp it was, while nearby Sir Magnus was chasing after a piece of dust floating around the cave, a look of pure glee plastered onto his face.

"Actually" Merlin conceded "they probably do."

Arthur looked smug.

"That doesn't mean you should have abandoned me though!" Merlin insisted "You could have made Percival look after them, he's mature enough, when he isn't _abandoning_ people to their _deaths._"

"I'm mature too!"

"Shut _up _Gwaine!"

"I was sort of unconscious at the time!" Arthur protested, pointing at a rather large stab wound in his side. "Evil half-sister, remember? How was I supposed to help you when I was dead to the world? I was _unconscious!_"

"That's convenient…"

"What's _that _supposed to mean?" Arthur asked, eyebrow raised.

"Nothing!" Merlin said, his voice oddly bright compared to the irritated tone he had taken up earlier. Arthur looked disconcerted by the change in tone, and even more so when it returned to being irritated when Merlin began to speak again. "I was just _hoping _that one of my friends would check that I was OK before abandoning me to die alone and afraid in a tunnel, because my friends had buggered off after about a _nanosecond_!"

"I needed to get back to knight Mordred" Arthur objected "I needed to get back quickly!"

"_Yeah_." Merlin said, sarcasm dripping off every syllable. "The guy you've known for about a minute (who, by the way, was part of a group that tried to _kill _you) is _way_ more important than the person who keeps _dying _for you, who you've known for, what, 10 years?"

"Yeah Arthur! Why'd you abandon Merlin?"

"Shut up Gwaine! _You _left me too! You didn't ask after me or anything, did you?"

"Well no" Gwaine admitted "but I had just recovered from being attacked by Saxons, and rescued by a glowy thing! _Percival _didn't come and look for me then!"

"Gwaine." Merlin said.

"Yes Merlin?"

"Shut up."

"Shutting up now."

A moment's silence.

"Look Merlin, if you want us to say sorry-"

"I don't!" Merlin said loudly "But the _next _time an immortal army invades Camelot (probably next Tuesday if security remains the same), _I'm not HELPING!"_

Merlin glared at the knights before turning and stalking off in what might have been a dignified way if he hadn't tripped over Sir Magnus, who was lying on the floor, hugging a big ball of dust. Scowling, he stood up and brushed off the dirt.

"You were _gone?!_" He muttered to himself "Oh, it's just Merlin, it doesn't matter if _he's _been missing for an hour, just _go! _He'll be _fine! _No, don't worry about _me!_"

"Merlin! Where had you got off to earlier?"

Merlin took a second to wonder about why the only person who seemed to care whether he had _died_ in a cave or not was the one prophesised to kill the 'other side of his coin'.

And briefly, Merlin wondered whether Mordred needed any help.


	2. Are you STILL going on about that?

**Decided to add another chapter. Why? Because it's fun to write about a ranting Merlin! Enjoy!**

* * *

Arthur probably should have known better than to suggest that Merlin be left behind after he sprained his ankle on their latest quest to find some kind of magical creature (he still didn't know what sort of magical creature it was – he had been too busy tactically retreating. And _yes, _it _was _tactically retreating, not running away like Merlin had said). It had been a few weeks after the incident in the caves, but Merlin still hadn't completely gotten over it. When Arthur had said that Merlin should remain in the cave (while the rest of them went ahead to defeat the aforementioned magical creature,) Merlin had muttered something under his breath, and although Arthur didn't hear what it was exactly, the tone was unmistakable.

Exasperated, Arthur turned to Merlin "Is this about being left in those caves, _again?_"

"_You _try being abandoned, and we'll see how well _you _take it." Merlin muttered again, folding his arms.

"We didn't _abandon _you!" Arthur said "We just… had more important things on our mind at that moment."

"Like packing"

"Like packing" Arthur agreed, before suddenly realising what he had said "_No _not 'like packing', like… like… what abou- Leon was abandoned too!"

"Me?" Leon said confusedly from the corner, pointing a finger at himself, eyebrows furrowed.

"See, you're not the only one who was forgotten about!" Arthur said "And Leon hasn't complained about it!"

"With all due respect Sire" Leon said, while Merlin pushed himself up, wobbling slightly on his left leg "You didn't know that I was still alive after the dragon incident."

"Exactly" Merlin said, arms still crossed "That was excusable; people tend to die when dragons breathe fire on them, and it was just luck that Leon survived, _me _on the other hand..."

Desperate to defend himself against a glowering Merlin, Arthur fished around for something to say. Sadly, Arthur's brain didn't seem to kick in until _after _he'd spoken. "I actually knew Leon was alive!" Arthur said triumphantly, before suddenly backtracking after he saw the look of amusement of Gwaine's face and the slightly hurt look on Leon's. "I mean" He said quickly "Leon's a… good Knight… he wasn't… Look, Leon _doesn't _die!"

"So he _wasn't _abandoned then?" Merlin asked.

"Yes… No, wait – yes!" Arthur answered. "Hang on; what was I talking about again?"

"Beats me"

"Not now Gwaine!"

"I'll admit it!" Arthur said, throwing his arms up in the air in a sign of surrender "That was the wrong thing to do, and I should have checked on you! But you've done stupid things too, and this is completely different! We need to defeat the… creature, and you've got a sprained ankle. This is the right thing to do."

All in all, Arthur was quite pleased with his logical reasoning, but Merlin only seemed to have latched on to one of the things Arthur had said.

"_I've _done stupid things? _I've _done stupid things?" Merlin said indignantly "Do you know how much easier life would be if you listened to me for once?"

"Really"

"_Yes!_" Merlin said loudly "Remember the Troll? Valiant? Caerleon? Cedric? And that bloody Valley of the Kings? And of these ringing a bell for you?"

Arthur opened his mouth to protest, but suddenly realised that Merlin was actually right. Of course, it wouldn't do for him to tell _Merlin _that, so instead, he went on the offensive.

"Who dropped the sword when we were trapped in that net?" Arthur asked, as Gwaine settled down on the floor, biting into an apple as he watched the two of them bicker. Leon and Elyan were exchanging looks, while Percival was standing in the corner, an amused look on his face.

"It wasn't my fault it was stuck under _your_ fat arse." Merlin replied.

There was an odd gagging sound as Gwaine began to choke on his apple. To be honest, that was probably a good thing, as it's quite hard to talk when you're choking on an apple. Leon and Elyan seemed to realise this, and made no attempt to help Gwaine, while Percival looked in two minds about helping him or not. Personally, Arthur was quite happy to let Gwaine choke on the apple if it kept him quiet for a bit.

"And whose fault was it that we were stuck in the net in the first place" Arthur pointed out. "It was tiny in there!"

Merlin ignored Arthur, instead saying "Because I was stuck in there with your fat arse."

There was a loud thumping noise as Percival whacked Gwaine on the back, sending the apple shooting out of his mouth, hitting a bewildered Elyan in the face. Arthur spluttered a bit, as Elyan rubbed the spot where the apple had hit. Silence fell, as Arthur tried (and failed rather badly) to think of something witty to say.

"Well you're… shut up."

Merlin gave a smug smile, which made Arthur scowl.

"Are we going or not?" Merlin asked, wobbling forward towards the exit.

"Merlin…" Arthur said, frustrated. "You can't even _walk _properly."

"I walk better than a drunken Gwaine" Merlin pointed out "And you still brought him along."

"Hey!"

"Shut up Gwaine" Arthur replied automatically, eyes still focused on the wobbling Merlin who was currently leaning on the cave wall for support. "Merlin, what if you trip, or attract bandits or something?"

"Arthur, you're already a bandit magnet already" Merlin pointed out "When _haven't _we run into bandits when doing _anything? _Ever_?_"

There was a mutter of approval from the knights at this, and Arthur fought the urge to turn around and glare at them, though it took a lot of effort. The bandit problem was something he was quite touchy about to be honest. Despite the numerous patrols he'd sent out, the forests were still swarming with bandits. Though he wouldn't admit out loud, Merlin did have a point.

'_Then again, at least Merlin could just hide behind a tree __**again**__ if they ran into trouble'_

There was another silence as all of the knights stared at Arthur, who blinked. _'Crap, I said that out loud, didn't I?'_

"Yes you did Princess"

"Gwaine, shut up" Arthur said, as Merlin muttered something about 'simpletons hugging trees' which Arthur didn't entirely understand.

Silence fell.

"You know, this really reminds me of one time where I had drunk _way _too much, and-"

"SHUT UP GWAINE!" shouted Merlin, and to Arthur's surprise, Elyan, Leon and Percival.

"We _really _don't want to hear another story about how you got incredibly drunk and did something extremely stupid because of it" Elyan said wearily, as Percival nodded mutely beside him.

"The last story lasted over an hour…" Leon murmured, shooting a glance at the knight in question, who had folded his arms and was looking quite offended at the lack of interest in his drinking stories. He turned away from the rest of the group and started searching around in his bag for something – a something that was most likely alcoholic – muttering under his breath as he did so ("Fine, just let Merlin vent at the princess then…). Talking of alcohol…

"Merlin's always in the tavern!" Arthur protested (though later Merlin would tell him that it came out as more of a whinge then a protest) loudly, pointing at his manservant, whose glare morphed first into a look of surprise, and then incredulity, before finally settling into a look of resigned irritation.

"Why don't you ever come to the tavern with _me_?" Gwaine complained from the corner, a sulky look on his face.

"Shut up Gwaine" Merlin muttered under his breathe, eyes flickering around the cave, looking decidedly nervous about the subject of his tavern visits.

"I've never actually _seen _you drunk" Percival said curiously, frowning slightly.

"What do you do in the tavern if you don't get drunk?" Elyan asked, also frowning. Merlin moved his eyes from left to right wildly, as if looking for a new conversation to appear from the shadows.

"What do you do in _life _if you don't get drunk?" Gwaine asked,

"Not everything revolves around mead, Gwaine" Leon said, looking as if he wanted nothing more than to return to the nice sane life he used to have before all the craziness started. Curiously enough, most of the crazy happenings (trolls, murderous sisters, assassins, dragons and the like) had started to happen after Merlin had arrived in Camelot. Arthur liked to think that Merlin was some sort of bad-luck charm that attracted all the psychos in the local area. Perhaps Merlin had a sign that he waved over Arthur's head whenever he wasn't looking, saying 'King of Camelot here, please attack!'. Actually, now that he thought about it, Arthur wouldn't put it past Merlin to own a sign like that.

"Admit it Merlin, you can be a bit of an idiot sometimes" Arthur said, with a tone that he thought contained a sense of finality. However, his views on his tone of voice were proved incorrect by another interruption from Gwaine.

"Remember that bar fight you started when we first met?"

"Gwaine, I'll buy you a_ basket_ of apples if you'll shut up."

"Deal accepted."

Merlin had been staring at Arthur with an expression that reminded Arthur of the look on Merlin's face when they'd been in the caves together – after Merlin had realised that they'd been about to leave without him – the look could only be described as incredulity with a dash of annoyance and just a pinch of resigned acceptance. When Merlin next spoke, Arthur could tell that he trying to restrain himself from doing something stupid…

"And who actually released a murderous gho- nothing… at all into Camelot?" Merlin trailed off, looking awkward again.

…and failing miserably.

"What about a ghost?" Elyan asked.

"Nothing… Nothing…" Merlin said quickly.

"Merlin. We need to go and get firewood. Now" Arthur said pointedly.

"I thought that we had to go defeat that magical creature, or is it no longer a big deal?"

"Gwaine, you're not getting those apples anymore."

"Aw…"

Arthur gestured pointedly to the entrance of the cave, and Merlin sighed slightly and pushed himself away from wall, hobbling after Arthur. When they were out of earshot from the knights (who seemed to be fighting over an apple Gwaine was holding, such was the level of maturity of his knights), Arthur turned and rounded on Merlin.

"_Mer_lin, what did we say about the incident with the horn of Cathbhadh?" Arthur asked.

"We were never to speak of it again." Merlin said reluctantly.

"And what did you just do?"

"I just spoke of it" Merlin said in a flat voice.

"Good." Arthur said. "Now if we're waiting here until your ankle gets better, we really should get some firewood."

"So you're _not_ going to abandon me again?" Merlin asked, brightening up considerably.

"_Mer_lin, I thought we agreed that I didn't _abandon _you." Arthur said, glaring at Merlin again.

"No, _you _agreed that you didn't abandon me" Merlin pointed out "_I _however; still believe that I was abandoned" Merlin said with a slightly cheeky grin, before turning towards the cave, and beginning to hobble back into it.

"You know something Merlin" Arthur said thoughtfully, "there's something I've been meaning to ask you since the horn incident – what did my father mean when he said 'You have-'?"

Merlin froze. Unfortunately he had been balancing on his left leg at that moment, and he toppled to the ground with a loud 'thud'. He quickly pushed himself up into a standing position again. Arthur watched in mild amusement, waiting for Merlin's answer.

"What did your father mean when he said that I had something… well obviously he could have meant a whole range of things… or he could have been lying – or maybe you just misheard him entirely-"

"Merlin."

"Yes?"

"You're babbling."

"That I am" Merlin conceded, sending a slightly desperate glance at the cave.

"Are you going to tell me?" Arthur asked.

"He was going to say that I have, that I have…" Merlin cast his eyes around the forest for a few seconds before finally saying "…a nice neckerchief."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "So you're telling me that your _almost _murderer's last words, my_ dead father's_ last words, was that my servant had a nice neckerchief?"

…

"Yes?"

Arthur stared at Merlin, who was looking anywhere but at Arthur. "You know, I think my ankle's feeling a bit better now, I'll just go and get some firewood…" Merlin blathered, turning and limping away from Arthur as fast as his bad ankle would carry him. It seemed that 'as fast as his bad ankle would carry him' turned out to be as far as the nearest tree, which Merlin tripped straight into, after failing to see a root sticking out of the forest floor. (This, coincidentally, happened to be the way that he had sprained his ankle in the first place). Merlin pushed himself up onto his feet again, and prompty walked into another tree. Arthur shook his head disbelievingly at Merlin's lack of awareness of his surroundings.

Merlin could be _so _oblivious sometimes.


End file.
